Gas prices have surged to nearly $10 a gallon in parts of California, it has been revealed, as costs continue to climb amid unprecedented inflation.

Overnight Friday, gas prices hit a national average of $4.76, according to AAA – an increase of nearly 20 cents in the span of a week.

Along the US West Coast, the pain at the pump is even worse, with Californians now seeing an also previously unseen average of $6.24 cents. The state saw gas costs surpass the $6 mark for the first time in history over the weekend.

With that said, some parts of the Golden State have been more afflicted by the fuel cost crisis more than others, with one station in Mendocino, along the California coast, recording prices just cents away from $10 – the highest ever in history.

The station, Schlafer’s Auto Repair, is not the only station in the state that has seen its gasoline costs soar to astronomical heights 

The development comes despite recent efforts from the The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to ramp up oil output to refuel the country’s refineries – whose stock has reached crisis levels in recent weeks.

Gas prices have surged to nearly $10 a gallon in parts of California, such as prices seen at the Mendocino gas station, as costs continue to climb to new highs amid unprecedented inflation. The numbers serve as the highest recorded gas prices in US history

Meanwhile, experts remain adamant that costs will continue to rise during the summer, warning the national average will likely surpass $6 before fall – spurring many would-be travelers to stay put during the typically rampant driving season.

‘It’s really frustrating,’ Arizona mom Laura Dena told Fox 5 NY Friday of the rising fuel costs.

She said she and her sons typically travel to Southern California around Memorial Day weekend to escape scorching heat seen in her home state over the summer. 

However, she says that now that it more than $100 to fill up her truck, she has begrudgingly decided to stay home. 

‘It’s upsetting,’ Dena said, adding, ‘But there’s not much we can do.

‘We have to pay the price.’

Gas prices in the US reached a new record high Thursday – recording a national average of $4.589 per gallon – with analysts at JPMorgan now warning that that number could surpass the $6 mark by the end of the summer. Pictured is a person at a pump in Pelatuma, California, where gas prices have already surpassed the $6 mark

Analysts at JPMorgan warned late last month that the national average could surpass the $6 mark by the end of the summer.

‘There is a real risk the price could reach $6+ a gallon by August,’ Natasha Kaneva, head of global oil and commodities research at the prominent investment bank, told CNN Tuesday. 

The concerning forecast comes as US gas prices have surged to previously unseen highs during Joe Biden’s presidency.

The nation’s current average gasoline price, $4.58-a-gallon, stands as nearly double the $2.41 average seen during former president Donald Trump’s last month in office.

The number topped Wednesday’s previous record of $4.567, which eclipsed Tuesday’s record of $4.523, which beat out Monday’s record of $4.470. 

The uptick has seen the price of gas since top $4-a-gallon in each of the 50 states – a dubious achievement never before reached. 

The meteoric rise – which also has been attributed as a consequence of oil producer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has seen California already surpass the $6, recording a state average of $6.061 Thursday.

Those prices have climbed since Biden was elected in November 2020, then skyrocketing earlier this year after the invasion of Ukraine, which has seen gas prices shoot up by at least 27 percent in about three months.

Meanwhile, as the European Union edges toward oil sanctions on Russia amid the county’s military operations in the country, high inflation seen under Biden’s Administration has further compounded the issue of rising fuel costs.

And with US gasoline inventories sitting at their lowest seasonal levels since 2019, JPMorgan says the situation will likely worsen in the coming months, with the bank conceding it will be difficult to satisfy consumer demand for gas during this summer’s driving season – when millions of American families are likely to take trips and vacations.

‘With expectations of strong driving demand…US retail price could surge another 37% by August,’ the bank wrote in a recently released report, titled ‘Cruel Summer.’

‘Typically,’ Morgan analysts wrote in their warning, ‘refiners produce more gasoline ahead of the summer road-trip season, building up inventories.

‘But this year, since mid-April, US gasoline inventories have fallen counter seasonally.’

JPMorgan also warned that East Coast gasoline inventories are at their lowest level in more than a decade, due to higher-than-normal exports of gasoline triggered by rising gas costs overseas in Europe – an uptick worse than the one seen in the US.

The rising rates have seen fuel supplies at US and Canadian refineries that normally supply Eastern US gas stations dwindle to crisis levels that could fall below levels seen in 2008, when the country experienced its worst recession since the Great Depression.

‘If exports persist at this elevated pace and refinery runs – already near the top range for reasonable utilization rates – fall within our expectations, gasoline inventories could continue to draw to levels below 2008 lows and retail gasoline prices could climb to $6/gallon or even higher,’ the analysts wrote.

At that rate, the analysts write, total US gasoline inventories could soon fall to levels not seen since the 1950s – an occurrence that would see gas prices swell even further.

High high inflation seen under Biden’s Administration has further compounded the issue of rising fuel costs. Inflation began to soar in April 2021, and has since risen to above 8 percent 

Such a decline in gas stock would lead to a 37 percent jump in prices, the economists write, which would then yield a national average of roughly $6.20 a gallon.

At those levels, gas prices would surge past their inflation-adjusted high of $5.38, seen in June 2008, when gas prices hit $4.11, not adjusted for inflation, according to the Energy Information Administration. 

Morgan warns that unless refineries ‘immediately’ nix most of its exports and shift toward producing its own gasoline, ‘US consumers should not expect much in the way of relief in prices at the pump until the end of the year.’